


Something's not right

by Smoritz



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Cuban Lance (Voltron), Eventual Keith/Lance (Voltron), Fluff, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Hurt Lance (Voltron), Insecure Lance (Voltron), Kidnapping, Langst, Minor Injuries, Nature, New Planets, Outer Space, Sick Character, Sick Lance (Voltron), Space Dad Shiro (Voltron), klance, klangst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-07
Updated: 2018-07-27
Packaged: 2019-03-15 03:03:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 7,961
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13604187
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Smoritz/pseuds/Smoritz
Summary: A distress beacon from a planet gets the team there, but things doesn't go as expected.Or: tmw you get kidnapped by aliens





	1. Chapter 1

Suddenly an a alarm started blaring, brutally waking Lance. 

He looked over at the ships time,

03:46

He grunted and got up, putting on his paladin armor.

As he walked onto the bridge, settling in his seat waiting for more information.  
He noticed that it was only him, Coran, Allura, Shiro and Pidge there.

“What’s happening?” Lance asked hopefully.  
“A distress beacon from a nearby planet,” Allura answered shortly,  
“And we’re on our way to help.”

Shortly afterwards Pidge and Keith came running in, sitting down in their own seats.

"What's happening?" Pidge asked as she sat down.

Allura and Coran started a wormhole, explaining what they knew as they travelled thru.

“Head down to your lions, we’ll be arriving shortly.” Allura said as the planet came into view.

Once everybody were in their Lions, they arrived, and Allura sent down the Lions, Coran and her waiting on the ship ready to back them up.

Once they landed and met outside the lions, Shiro reported back to the castle, “We’re here Princess,” Shiro said, “Where is the village?” He asked looking around, the others doing the same thing.

The landscape was mostly green, with what looked like some sort of trees growing here and there, the undergrowth was thick, grass and flowers fighting for space. The air was moist and hot, it kind of felt like a blanket.

“I’m sending you the coordinates now.” She told them, as a tiny map appeared on the tablet Pidge was holding.

And so they started walking towards the village, “Do you know what happened?” Pidge asked, “Sadly, no. I don’t.” was the answer they got from Allura, “Ok, were close now.” Pidge said back.

And they were, it was visible in the distance.  
Problem,  
There was a big, fast-flowing river in between them.

“How are we going to get over that?” Lance asked, “Maybe we could climb over on a tree that reaches over to the other side.” Keith suggested. “Good idea.” Shiro said.  
Keith looked smugly over at Lance, who just looked away with a hurt expression in his eyes.  
When they finally reached the edge of the river, the decided to split up in the search of a bridge. Lance, Pidge and Shiro going upstreams, Keith and Hunk going the other way.

Suddenly Keith and Hunk heard a yell, and saw Pidge waving them over.

When they reached the others, Shiro had already crossed over, Pidge was beginning on her climb, lance waiting behind her.

“I don’t like this..” Lance said halfway over the tree, looking scared. “It’s fine, Pidge and me crossed over just fine. It’s ok, Lance.” Shiro said reassuringly. Lance began crawling, slowly, but steadily. When he finally reached the other side, he gave a relieved sigh.

When Hunk landed on the other side, they finally started walking towards the village again.  
“When we get there, we need to be carefull. We have no idea what happened, so again, tread carefully.” Shiro warned.

But when they walked into town, everything was calm. 

“What?” Pidge looked at her tablet, wondering if they were at the right place, “We are at the coordinates that Allura sent us.”  
“What if she sent us the wrong ones?” Lance suggested, “Highly unlikely.” Pidge answered.

They walked around for a bit, before realising that someone was missing.

“Hey, where is Keith?” Lance asked, looking for the missing paladin.

The others stopped, looking around after him. Only to realise that Pidge was missing too.

“Where could they be?” Lance asked Shiro, looking over at him.  
“I don’t know. Maybe they just wandered of, I’m sure they’ll meet us soon.” Shiro said.

And so they walked on. 

“Lance?” Hunk looked around for him. “Lance is gone too!” Hunk panicked, “I’m sure he me-”

Suddenly a hand had reached out of the shadows and put in front of Shiro’s mouth, another around his waist pulling him away from Hunk.

“No!” Hunk yelled as he ran over to Shiro to help him, but before he could get that far, another couple of hands grabbed him, and dragged him away from Shiro.


	2. Chapter 2

Lance opened his eyes, only to notice that he was in what looked like a cell.  
Great.

He tried sitting up, only to fall back down again. He brought his hand up to his ribs, rubbing them. They hurt like hell, he concluded.

He pushed himself over to the wall, leaning against it.

“Keith?” Lance asked confusedly as he spotted him over in the other corner.

At the sound of his name, Keith turned around to see that Lance had finally woke up.  
He sighed in relief, he had began to get worried about him.

“Yeah?” Keith answered,  
“Do you know where we are?” Lance asked,  
“I’m pretty sure someone kidnapped us and were currently being held captive by someone from the village.” He voiced his suspicions.  
“Oh,” Lance suddenly coughed harshly, “Do you have any idea where the others may be?”  
“Are you okay?” Keith asked as he finally took a good look at Lance. He was holding one arm around his ribs, like a one-armed hug. He looked pretty beat up, if you’d ask Keith.  
“Yeah, but I think at least one of my ribs are bruised.” Lance said as he rubbed his ribs and coughed some more.  
“I don’t know where the others are, but my guess is that they are in another cell.” Lance just nodded.

 

* * * * * * *

“Shiro?” He opened his eyes as his name was called once again, and two small hands were shaking his shoulders.  
As he took in his surroundings, he shot up, almost knocking Pidge off her legs.

“Sorry.” He chuckled, as he helped her up.  
“S’Okay.” She murmured, brushing the dirt of her armor.

“Where are we?” Shiro asked her, since Hunk was still knocked out.  
“in some kind of cell, if you asked me.” Pidge said.  
“So, you think Keith and Lance are in another cell?” He asked her, walking over to the bars, or vines, as it looked more alike, looking up and down the hallway outside.  
“Yeah, that’s what I thought. I wish I was there to witness that.” She quickly added as she chuckled to herself, rubbing her hands together.

It was actually pretty chilly in the cell, and by that Pidge and Shiro guessed that they were underground, which would make it even harder to escape.

“Uuggh..” Was heard from behind them, as Hunk woke up.   
“Hunk! You’re awake.” Pidge said happily as she practically skipped over to him, giving him a hug.

Pidge and Shiro filled him in on their suspicion and their so-far plan of getting out of here.

 

* * * * * *

The coughing had worsened as the night dragged on.  
“Could you not?” Keith asked annoyed at the lack of sleep.  
“M’Sorry.” Lance slurred sleepily. Keith was surprised at the lack of comment. He realised that this must be much worse for Lance.

“How are you feeling?” Keith asked as he got up and walked over to Lance and sitting down next to him. In the half-dark cell, it was hard to see from a distance that Lance’s face was scrunched up in pain.   
“My chest hurts a lot, it feels like I can’t take deep breaths.” Lance forced out..

This cell was pretty warm, only slightly cooler than outside, but Keith figured that was because the sun had set.

Lance fell into a coughing fit, doubling over and clutching his chest while he struggled for air.  
Keith rubbed in circles on his back, hoping for it to help.  
It finally stopped and Lance leaned back against the wall, gasping for breath. His face was covered in a thin sheet of sweat.

Lance turned his head to look at Keith, noticing the worried look on his face, “I’m fine, Keith. Try to get some sleep, and everything will look better tomorrow. Then we can try to figure out how to get out of here.” Lance said in a raspy voice. 

Lance layed down down with a pained grunt, Keith lying down behind him, rubbing what he hoped to be soothing circles on his back. 

Soon enough, Lance’s breath evened out, it was still really shallow.   
Keith wasn’t able to sleep, so he kept rubbing Lance’s back hoping to ease his breathing.   
He also tried to figure out a way to escape.

* * * * * * *

Shiro leaned against the wall, watching Hunk and Pidge trying to sleep.  
To try to keep warm, they huddled together. Even tho their suits try to regulate their body temperature, it was still pretty cold.

Shiro worried about Lance and Keith. He didn’t know if they were okay, or where they were and how they would find each other again. Allura and Coran were probably worried, too.

“Come ‘ere, Shiro.” Pidge said and waved a hand for him to come over. He quietly shook his head, but she just waved more and urged him to come over. Shiro shook his head fondly as he crawled over to them from the opposite wall. He leaned against Hunk’s other side, Pidge leant forward and gave him a self-satisfied and smug smile. Then she leant back and Shiro assumed she was trying to fall back asleep.

He felt his eyelids get heavier, and soon he was sleeping as the two others.

* * * * * * * 

Keith opened his eyes, blinking at the strong light emitting from the hallway.  
He lifted his head of the ground, slowly sitting up to not wake Lance.

Next to the bars, there was a small basin filled with luke-warm water. 

There also were two small trays with what Keith guessed was food. He took one of them and begin eating as he waited for Lance to wake up.

After Keith had finished eating and do some much-needed stretches after a night on the cold stone floor.  
Lance stirred, blinking a couple of times at the light.   
“Hey, how you feeling?” Keith asked as he walked over to Lance and bent down next to him, bringing the other tray along with him.  
“Not too good, I think.” Lance said honestly.  
“While we were alseep, we got some food, and a basin with water. You should eat something, keep your strenght up for our ‘big escape’.” Keith said as he helped prop Lance up against the wall so he could eat.

While Lance ate, Keith explained his plan of escape.  
“You see the sharp edge of these trays?” He asked Lance as he lifted his empty tray running a finger back and forth against the edge, “I think I could cut throug these vines.” He said as he got up and walked over to the bars, beginning to drag the tray back and forth against a vine.  
“And I think the door out is at the end of the hallway, so if we get there, we just need to head for the lions.” Keith said,  
“What about the others?” Lance asked in a raspy voice.  
“I just hope they think the same thing.”

* * * * * * *

“But what are we gonna do about Keith and Lance?” They were discussing their plan on escaping this prison. They had already eaten their food, but hadn’t thought of cutting the vines with the trays.   
They had already tried using Shiro’s robotic arm, but it hadn’t worked.   
“We will just have to hope that they make it out and get to the lions.” Shiro answered Pidge.  
“But what if they don’t?” Hunk shot back, “If they’re not by the lions or we haven’t met them on the way, of course we will go back and search for them, but for now there’s not much we can do for them right now.” Shiro answered.

They discussed and planned, until Hunk was standing up and getting a dizzy-spell from sitting for so long.

“Woah!” He said as he tumbled backwards into the vines.

And they snapped in two, making Hunk crash into the hallway opposite outside their cell.

“What?” Pidge said as she raised her hands, waving them indignantly. “It was that easy?”

“Obviously.” Shiro said as he strode past her into the hallway, Pidge following him closely behind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> turned out pretty well, i hope. if not tomorrow, then i'll post a new chapter probably after the weekend.  
> thanks for reading, see you next time!<3


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some shit happens, the gang finds each other. Thing just go "down hill" with Keith and Lance after this;P

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for taking such a long time to post, I just was kinda stuck, I didn't know what to write.  
> My other stories I'm currently working on will also be updated between today and saturday, so just hang in there:P  
> Anyways, enjoy:3

“Come on Lance, we need to go!” Keith said, looking back at Lance, who was soundly asleep.  
Keith had finally cut through one of the vines, making a hole big enough for them to escape.

Lance stirred at the sudden yell, and looked over at Keith.  
“Greeeat, you cut through one of the vines.” He slurred as he closed his eyes again.  
“No, Lance! Come on, we need to go!” Lance opened his eyes again, and slowly getting up.  
He was a little unsteady on his legs, and Keith walked over to support him.

They walked down the hallway, Keith supporting most of Lance’s weight. Keith was looking for the others, glancing in at every cell they passed.  
Most of them were empty, which was surprising.  
He had no idea what kind of prison, or whatever this actually was, served as.

When they reached the door at the end of the hallway, Keith pushed it open with the help of Lance, and was surprised that it wasn’t locked.

Now they were suddenly outside.  
Lance took a deep breath,  
Or at least tried, as it ended in more painful coughing.

It was, as a guess from Keith, a little after noon.

“I can’t even see the village.” Lance pointed out as he looked around.  
“I think I can hear the river.” Keith said,  
“Are you sure?” Lance asked as he turned his head to look at Keith.  
Lance looked terrible, he really did. He was pale, a thin sheen of sweat covering his face.  
“I’m sure. You look terrible, by the way.” Keith said.  
“Oh, Thanks. It was the look I was going for this morning. ” Keith chuckled, and he started leading Lance towards where he thought the river was.

They had to stop multiple times along the way, so that Lance could try to catch his breath, and rest.  
Keith hoped the others were okay, he hoped they had gotten out. He hoped they would catch up to them every time they stopped. 

Keith thought he could see the river in the distance, but he wasn’t completely sure.  
But when they slowly got closer, he grew more certain.

* * * * * *

“Where are we going now?” Pidge asked as they walked up the stairs that had been at the end of the hallway, hoping for it to lead them out.

“I’m not sure, but I hope it leads out.” Shiro answered.

They reached the top of the stairs, walking into a new hallway with just as many cells as the last one.

“Wonder why all of them are empty.” Pidge thought out loud.  
Shiro noticed that it was not only the prisoners that were missing. “No idea. But why aren’t there any guards here?”  
Pidge shrugged.

They reached the end of the hallway, earning another flight of stairs.  
Hunk was panting when they had reached the top of the stairs.  
“Why is there so. Many. Stairs?”  
“Is that a door?” Pidge spotted what looked like a door at the end of the hallway.  
They had come about halfways thru the corridor when Shiro saw a vine that had been cut thru by someone.  
“Someone was here. You think it was Keith and Lance?” He asked hopefully as he bent down, picking up the vine and studying it.  
“It has obviously been cut thru, and recently too. You can see as it hasn’t begun to brown yet.”  
He explained as he studied it closely.  
“Maybe,” Pidge shrugged, “If it infact is them, then we should hurry and see if we can catch up to them.”  
Hunk nodded, “Agreed.”

* * * * * * * *

They’d finally reached the huge river. “How do we cross?” Lance asked,  
“The same way we did last time.” Keith looked over at Lance,  
“You look really tired. I’ll leave you here while I go look for a place to cross, and then come back to get you when I’ve found something.” Keith helped Lance sit down, propping him up against a tree.  
“Don’t fall asleep, okay?”  
“Okay,” He yawned, “I won’t.”

Keith walked of, looking for a tree, or just a normal bridge- Well, just something to cross the river with.

* * * * * * * * * 

“Is- Is that Lance or am I imagining things? Lance!” Pidge yelled, beginning to run towards the sitting figure.

Shiro looked over at Hunk, who shrugged and began running after her, Shiro following behind.

“Lance!” She slowed down to a halt in front of him, “Is he sleeping?”  
She bent down to shake his shoulder.  
“Laaaance?” She spoke in a soft voice,  
“Pidge? What are- what, Pidge!” He lurched forward to hug her.  
“ow ow ow ow ow..” He said quietly as his ribs ached.  
Pidge leaned away from the loose hug, “What? What’s wrong?” She asked worriedly as she looked him up and down.  
He rubbed his chest, “I’m not certain, pretty sure some of my ribs are bruised from the kidnapping.” He shrugged at the memory.  
“Awww, you poor thing.” She said in a way too sweet and sarcastic voice, Lance narrowed his eyes at her. 

Shiro and Hunk reached them.  
“Where’s Keith?” Shiro asked as he looked around,  
“Oh, he’s looking for somewhere to cross the river,” He gestured to the river flowing freely behind him, “And he left me here.”  
Pidge looked over at him, “Why did he leave you?”  
“I’m dying.” The others looked at him with shock clear in their faces.  
“No, no! I’m just joking with you.” He chuckled as he did some finger-guns at them, making him cough a couple of times.

Shiro looked to his left at the sound of footsteps,  
“Keith!” Keith was running towards them.  
“I found a place we can cross! We need to get out of here before they realise we’re gone.”  
He walked over to Lance as he talked, helping him up and supporting him.  
Pidge chuckled, “What happened to them?” 

They walked for a while, having to take breaks for Lance’s sake.  
Keith and Lance stopped, the rest coming to a halt behind them.  
“Is this it?” Pidge asked looking uncertain at the tree leaning out over the river, almost reaching the other side.  
Keith helped Lance sit down, then turned towards the tree. “Yes, it’s the best one I found. You’ll just have to jump at the end if it.” 

Pidge studied the tree, “I can climb over first, because if it can’t hold my weight, then it definitely can't hold any of you.If it breaks, then I’ll just use my bayard.”  
She walked over to the tree, slowly starting to climb over.  
When she reached the end of it, she sat up to a squat, jumping over to the other side of the river. She tumbled when she landed.  
“It’s fine! You can cross now!” She yelled at them,  
“I’ll cross now,” Shiro stepped forward to the tree, starting to climb it.  
He reached the end without problems, jumping over to the other side.  
“Hunk, you cross.” Shiro told Hunk,  
He looked hesitant, “Fine.”  
He climbed over it slowly, it shaking slightly with every movement.  
Keith heard a silent *crack* noise at some point, but he didn’t think more of it since nothing happened.

“You go first, Lance, I’ll be right behind you” He quickly added at the scared look on Lance’s face.  
With Lance everything went slightly slower, because of the pain from the bruised ribs.  
Keith began climbing behind Lance, once he was a bit out on the narrow tree.

“I- I don’t like this.” Lance said as the tree had begun to lean dangerously close to the river below.  
“Just keep going, it will be fine.” Shiro said as he smiled.

Lance screamed as the tree snapped in two, disappeared into the river, them falling down into the water with it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading, and again, sorry for taking so long.  
> See you next time:3  
> Sorry if there's any typos:/


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello! I've finally finished the chapter, and I'm actually quite proud of it. But it's late, and I'm tired (I'm always tired.) So sorry if there's any typos, maybe I'll fix them tomorrow. We'll see!  
> Anyways, enjoy!:3

Lance struggled trying to break the surface, but the current was just too strong.   
But still, surprisingly, all he could think about was Keith.  
Is he okay? Did he fall in too? Has he drowned? Did he make it to the shore and left me behind?

Lance felt something grab onto his collar, but he barely noticed.   
It felt like his senses were slipping, probably because of the lack of oxygen.

He tried helping, who he thought was Keith, by kicking his legs, trying to get to the shore.  
Lance still hasn’t had chance to breathe, which he was noticing it’s effects of in a rather unpleasant way.  
There were black spots dancing across his vision, but he didn't mind passing out, so that he could escape the pain pounding inside his chest.  
It felt like a tiny hippo was trapped, raming the walls in an attempt to get out.   
Or rather, to get air.

Keith swam as hard and fast as he could for where he figured the shore would be.   
Lance’s help didn’t do much in his feeble attempt of fighting the rough stream that was currently dragging them down the river at a fast pace.

Keith caught sight of the shore, which luckily wasn’t too far away.  
He didn’t feel Lance moving anymore, which worried him beyond belief.  
He couldn’t drag Lance up to the surface, it would just take too much time and power to do it, he figured it would be faster to just get to the shore. Before it’s too late.

He reached the shoreline, quickly dragging Lance up, feeling for a heartbeat and too look if he was breathing.

Since none of them could get checked of, he started doing chest compressions.  
He briefly remember the short lesson Shiro once gave him a looong time ago, trying to do as he remembered.

He was still worried that he possibly would do more damage than good. You’re bringing back a dead person, there’s not much damage that the person can blame you for. After all, you just saved that person’s life, he remembers Shiro telling him.   
He held onto that, thinking about it as he tried to get life back in Lance.

Lance suddenly began coughing and throwing up water, Keith letting out a breath he hadn’t realised he was holding.  
He slapped Lance’s back, hoping it would help Lance get out all the water inside his lungs.

Keith had the chance to take in their surroundings, while he still helped Lance cough up all the water.

Keith figured that they were quite a bit down the river from where they’d started out in the first place.  
The trees were growing thickly at the end of the beach, grass, flowers and bushes scattered around and in-between.

The air was colder here, Keith didn’t know if it was because they’ve moved so far down the river, or because the sun was setting, coloring the sky a beautiful tinge of pink, orange, yellow and red. Clouds were drifting slowly high above them, colored by the sky.

At that moment, Keith’s mind was at peace.   
he was seated within the most beautiful, peaceful and as close as he thought he could get to earth.  
Keith didn’t really miss home, after all, he didn’t have anyone to come home to. Just the empty, now probably dusty too, shack in the desert.  
But he did miss earth, all it’s, or atleast what felt like, normality, what he was used to.

Lance stopped heaving, leaning back onto Keith, who had moved behind him while he was hitting his back.  
“How- Are..How are you feeling?” Keith asked as he looked down at a pale Lance. He didn’t really know what to say, nor what to do anymore.  
“Like shit,” He answered in a raspy voice, “But I guess that’s what happens when you die. For a little while.” Keith laughed at the comment.  
“Well, I’m just glad you didn’t die.” Keith said as he laid a hand on top of Lance’s head and petting him.  
“What are you doing,” Lance asked,  
Keith stopped his hand mid-stroke, “Comforting?”   
Lance chuckled, only to wince in pain, hugging his chest with one hand.   
“Keep doing it, it was.. nice.” Lance said with a slightly forced smile.   
Keith obliged, and kept petting him. 

Lance closed his eyes for a moment.   
He’d come to enjoy the company of Keith, which was for the better, he thought, they seemed to be stuck together for some time to come.  
He leaned into Keith, enjoying the touch. Lance sighed with pleasure.  
Keith stiffened for a couple of seconds, before relaxing.

They sat there for a while, Lance enjoying the ability to breathe again, Keith looking at the sun slowly setting.

“What should we do?” Lance asked after a while,  
Keith looked at Lance, who was leaning against his chest, “What do you mean?”   
“Like, what are we gonna do? Should we find the others? Wait for them to come for us? Head for the lions?” Lance blurted out some of their options, Keith considering them for a moment.  
“I think we should wait for them.” He concluded.  
“Why so?” Lance asked as he tried to tilt his head to look at Keith, then wincing in pain and giving up, leaning his head back against Keith’s chest again.  
“They know in which direction we are. And it seems like you should at least rest for a couple of hours before we make any major movements. In that time, it could very well happen that they reach us.” Keith said, leaning his head back against the tree trunk. 

They sat there for awhile, just enjoying each others company. Yep, that’s right, enjoying.

The sky had darkened, now shades of purple, pink and different shades of blue. Some places, even stars were glistening.  
Keith was completely stunned by the beauty of this planet, it was just so amazing.

He was studying a couple of flowers that were sprouting out of the dirt next to him.  
The flowers had been closed, then they had begun to spread their beautiful petals once the sun had begun to set. Now they were finally completely open, exposing their beautiful petals, which were a mix of dark blue and purple, it was littered with white spots in the middle, thinning out as it reached the end of the petals. It looked just like the night sky, Keith thought as he looked up at the sky again, studying the stars that were twinkling high above them.

He wished they were all here, around a campfire or something.   
Then everything would just be more peaceful, and safe.  
He would be protected by his other teammates.  
But first of all, they could’ve helped Lance.

Lance looked pretty okay, if you looked away from his pale skin and his wheezing breath.  
But right now, most importantly, he looked so peaceful.  
His eyes were closed, leaning against Keith, who was still petting his hair, now rubbing circles on the back of his hand too. He wasn’t asleep, but it looked like he was enjoying himself.

“It does smell amazing here.” Lance pointed out, still not opening his eyes.  
Keith hadn’t thought about it, but as he purposely smelled the air, he had to admit that it really did, “It really does.” Keith said slowly.  
“Did you see the sunset?” Keith asked,  
Lance opened his eyes slightly, “Nah, I was resting my eyes. My eyelids are as heavy Blue.”   
“Hmmm.” Keith hummed in agreement.  
His eyelids did feel heavy too.  
He shot open his eyes as wide as he could.  
No, he couldn’t rest, not yet.

Lance closed his eyes again, enjoying the petting of his hair and circles on the back of his hand.  
He nodded off, waking up again after some time later, then nodded off again. The cycle repeated throughout the most of the night.

He had a very pleasant dream, it was the occasional movie night they had when they had time for it and weren’t too tired.  
He was sitting on the couch, cuddling with Keith. Keith leaned against Lance, warming his stomach comfortably. Everybody were sitting in their PJ’s, speaking quietly to each other when something suspicious happened. Shiro leaned against his legs which were draped over the edge of the couch. Pidge leaned onto the side of Shiro.  
Lance was just so happy, he couldn’t stop smiling.   
His team was all together, enjoying themselves, cuddling, watching a movie, safe and sound inside the huge Castle of Lions.

He woke up with a start, disappointment written on his face.   
He then felt that his stomach still was warm, which was weird. He yelped as he noticed the tiny feline curled up on his stomach.

He poked Keith in his ribs with his elbow, “What-” Lance cut him off, pointing at the tiny furry creature currently sleeping on his stomach.

Lance reached a shaky hand towards it, touching it’s fur, then beginning to pet it cautiously.   
It began to, what sounded like, purr. It was a very welcome sound to Lance’s ears, remembering all the cat’s in his neighbourhood that he would pet and cuddle with.   
When you needed someone to watch your cat, you called the McClain house.

Everybody knew that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading! I loved writing this chapter, it was so fun to describe the nature, I really enjoyed myself!  
> I'll soon update my other stories, don't you worry;)  
> Thanks for reading, see you soon!:)


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! I'm not dead, yet:0.  
> About to have a pretty stressful week and weekend, so I'll probably not post anything, I don't know yet.
> 
> Anyways, enjoy!:D

Keith and Lance had fallen asleep, and didn’t notice the people that was passing by at the other side of the river.  
“Lance! Keith!”  
“How far could they have gotten?”  
“I don’t know! They’re probably ahead of us if they’re on the way to the lions.”  
“We should just head there too, and hope to meet them there. If not, we'll go look for them with our lions.”  
“Yeah, good idea.”  
“Mhm.” The voices and sounds of steps grew quieter the further away they walked. After a while, it was completely quiet again.

The river was quietly clucking by, the wind blowing silently through the trees.  
Lance prodded him awake, “Keith?”  
“Mm.” Keith answered sleepily,  
“I’m cold.” He could feel him shivering now, so Keith hugged him tighter.

Lance poked him awake,  
“Keith? Keith! Don’t fall asleep again, we need to move on.” Lance moved away from Keith, and he finally opened his eyes.

The sun was already up, and the tiny feline was gone.  
“What happened with the-the furball?” Keith asked as he got up,  
Lance shrugged, “Dunno. Probably left while we slept.”  
“In which direction do we need to go to find the lions again?” Keith looked around for any sign or something to point them in which direction they could be.

“I think if we head down-river we’ll find them eventually.” Lance said, pointing down streams.  
“How’d you figure?”  
Lance shrugged, “Gut feeling, I guess.”  
Keith looked at him sceptically,  
Lance laughed a little at the expression, “Nah, I’m just kidding. You see the footprints on the other side?” Lance pointed, “I think it may be the others.”  
“What? What’d make you believe that?”  
Lance sighed at rubbed the back of his neck, “Ok, look closely at the footprints and how low the people who’ve walked there had sunk.” Keith looked, and had to admit that, considering the depth of the footprints, that it may be Pidge, Hunk and Shiro.  
“And look at my footprint,” He walked down towards the river and stepped in the wet mud, “They look the same.” Lance stated,  
Keith compared them, “Yeah, they kind of do.”  
Lance grinned.  
“So we should probably follow the tracks.”  
“Yeah.”

And so they started walking in a comfortable silence.  
After a while it had started to rain. The rain evenly grew heavier as the day went on. It didn’t take long before both of them were soaked.  
Lance was smiling almost the whole time they were walking, and it kind of annoyed Keith.  
“What are you so happy about?” He asked grumpily.  
“Oh,” Lance looked surprisedly at Keith, “Uhm, well,” He looked uncertain now, ”I’ve missed rain, it reminds me of earth, and I really miss home.” He smiled shakily. He didn’t look as happy anymore.  
“Oh. I don’t really miss earth. I don’t really have anything to miss.” Keith rubbed the back of his neck, “Really? Nothing?” Lance looked at him in surprise,  
“Come on, you must miss something.” Lance prodded,  
“Not really.” Keith answered.  
“You must miss something.” Lance looked worried now. “Uhm, I-I guess I miss the sunsets?”  
“They were really beautiful in the desert.”  
“Why do you miss them?” Lance just kept on going, didn’t he.  
Keith sighted heavily, “I tried to paint them sometimes.”  
“What?” Lance looked amazed, surprised and like he was about to laugh at the same time.  
Lance poked him with his elbow, “Seriously? Do you paint? Are you any good?”  
“I do paint, I’m not really any good. It’s just a hobby.” Keith shrugged. He felt kind of embarrassed for some reason, he could feel the blush spreading across his cheeks.  
“What do you miss then?” Keith tried to change over to Lance, “You must miss something more than just rain.”  
“Of course! I miss my family, our cat, the ocean, my siblings, my room, my other friends.” Lance’s eyes shot up.  
“Oh god, they all think I’m dead. What did the Garrisons say? They must’ve said that we were missing or something. But that’s a really long time ago. They must think I’m dead by now.”  
Lance looked down, but kept walking. Keith didn’t really know what to do, so he followed suit.

Suddenly Keith slipped on some mud, but luckily, before he could hit the muddy ground, Lance got him under his arm and helped him regain his balance.  
Lance grunted in pain at the strain in his chest that made everything really painful.  
Keith quickly regained his balance,

“Thanks for the he-” He looked at Lance who was hugging his chest, slightly bent forward with a pained expression on his face. Keith placed a hand on his shoulder.  
“Lance.” Keith said firmly,  
“What?” Came a strained, rough voice to answer.  
Keith looked at him in worry, “Are you okay, does your chest hurt?”  
“M, no and yes.” Came the rough voice again.  
“Ok,” Keith looked around. He figured that they had probably walked for about a mile or two during the day.  
Keith couldn’t see the sun because of the thick clouds, but it was steadily getting darker, and Keith figured that it wouldn’t be long til nightfall. They would’ve stopped soon anyways to camp out for the night.  
“Ok. We should stop here and camp for the night.” Keith nodded, and looked around for something to make shelter out of. 

Yes! Some huge leaves, he can lean them up against a tree and they’ll rest underneath them.  
Keith pointed towards the tree he had chosen, “Go sit against that tree, Lance.”  
“Ok?” Lance walked over to the tree anyways and sat down with a grunt and leaned against the trunk.  
Keith collected a few leaves that he thought would be enough to cover the two of them.

He walked back to Lance and tied the leaves to the tree.  
Keith chuckled, “What?” Keith was taken aback by the hostility in his voice.  
“What is it?” Lance asked again since Keith didn’t answer,  
Keith was surprised at the hostility emitting from Lance, “Oh, um. Nothing.”  
“Tell me what it is.”  
“It’s just the situation that we’re in. They walked past us while we were asleep.” Keith laughed again. “How did they walk past us?”  
“Yeah. Real funny.” Lance said darkly and turned away from Keith to look out at the rain still pouring down outside.  
Lance started shaking after a while.  
If he was cold, or if it was something else, Keith didn’t know.  
But from the way he had been acting, Keith didn’t want to do anything.

So Keith leaned his head back and closed his eyes. 

He swore he could’ve heard Lance let out a sad cry before he fell asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you liked it! The tiny cat-thing will come back to haunt them, just wait and see>:)  
> I'll maybe update stomach bugs during this week if I am to update anything.  
> Anyways, Thanks for reading, see you next time:)<3


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for this chapter being so short, I had to make it in a hurry:\  
> I’m not really happy with it, either.
> 
> But anyways, (try to) enjoy!:|

“Keith?” Lance poked him, Keith humming sleepily in answer.

“Keith!” Lance hissed in his ear.

“Wha-” Lance hushed him, “Be quiet! Now, listen.”  
Keith listened, first, he didn’t know what to listen for, but then, he heard it.

The rustling noise from outside.

“What is that?!” Keith hissed, “I don’t know, that’s why I woke you up!” Lance hissed back.  
Keith poked his head out, only to get pulled back in by Lance, “What are you doing? What if it sees you!”  
“It won’t!” Keith shook Lance off and poked his head out again, but with no luck. It was still really dark outside, which didn’t help.  
“I don’t see anything.” Keith said as he settled in back inside.

Lance sighed, “I’m tired.”  
Keith scoffed, “What, haven’t you slept?”  
“No.” Lance looked away, “Oh.”

And so they sat there in an awkward silence for a while, forgetting about the weird noise.  
“I’m really hungry.” Keith said, trying to start up a conversation.  
“Yeah, me too.”  
Lance was still looking out when he whispered, “Keith! Keith, that thing is coming!”  
He looked the same place as Lance did, when they saw a tiny head poke out of the bushes with a couple of fruits in it’s mouth, Lance relaxed his shoulders and Keith let out a breath he hadn’t realised he was holding.

“It’s just Princess!” Lance exclaimed,  
Which made Keith looke confusedly at Lance, then the tiny feline, “How would you even know it’s a girl?”  
Lance shrugged, “I don’t, it’s just that she looks so well-groomed that I thought she must be royalty.” he chuckled,  
“C’mere, Princess.” Lance tried luring the feline inside, which worked like a charm, making Lance smile.

Princess opened her mouth and three fruits fell out.  
One was looked like an orange mixed with an apple, only in purple. The other one looked kind of like a mixture between a strawberry and a raspberry, only bigger. The last one was basically a pink banana.

As they ate the fruit in silence, Princess purred happily and curled up in Lance’s lap.

When Lance had finished, he was about to fall asleep when Keith asked, “Hey, how’s your chest?”  
Lance shifted uncomfortably, “Well, it aches, like all the time. And it’s hard to breathe.”  
“If there’s anything I can do, I’m happy to help.” Keith offered.  
“I could rub your back?” Keith offered,  
Lance just nodded and took of his chest piece, turning around so that his back was facing Keith.

Keith rubbed soothing circles on his back, and soon enough, Lance was asleep.

Keith felt pretty tired himself, so he leaned his back against Lance, and fell asleep too.

During the night, they had latched onto each other’s hands. 

When they woke up, neither of them wanted to let go.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yep, really short, hehe:/  
> But I’ll post soon again, so if anything, the next chapter will be a little extea long.
> 
> Sorry if there’s any typos, it’s 1:30 at night. Again:/
> 
> Anyways, thanks for reading, see you next time!:D


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uhhm.. Yeah, sorry for the two last chapters being so short, I kind of lost inspiration?  
> Just read it and the pain will end..?  
> What are you doing???  
> Just read it, bye

Princess was still lying in Lance’s lap when he woke up, He enjoyed the rare, quiet while with joy. It had finally stopped raining, now the sun was out shining it’s beautiful rays of sunshine.

He sat watching the river slowly flowing by, the grass as it swayed in the wind.  
He also wondered how it was going for the other guys, had they made it back to the lions yet? Are they behind them or in front of? Are they okay?

Keith squinted at the sun that was shining in his eyes.  
“Lance?”  
“Yeah?” Came a raspy voice,  
“OK.”  
“What?” Lance turned around to look at him,  
“I was just wondering if you were awake. We should get going.” Keith stood up and walked outside of their makeshift tent.

Keith enjoyed the sun while he waited for Lance to come outside.  
When he hadn’t appeared after a while, Keith poked his head back inside the tent,  
“Come on.”  
“It hurts.” Lance whined with a pained expression in his eyes,  
Keith got worried, “What hurts?”  
“To move. And it’s just so comfortable here with Princess.” He smiled at the tiny feline who was still sound asleep in his lap.

Lance looked back at Keith with pleading eyes, “Can we bring her back to the castle?”  
Keith stuttered, “I-uh,-I don’t know, that’s, uh, that’s not my decision to make.”  
“Fine.” Lance sighed, then looked back up at Keith, “Well, help me up.” 

Keith just ripped the huge leaves off the tree, then dragged Lance up who whined in the painful process.  
“You okay?” Keith asked when he had gotten him up and they had started walking,  
Lance shrugged, “Guess I’m fine.”  
“Oh. Well.” Keith didn’t know what to do. He didn’t want to push Lance, it was obvious that he didn’t want to talk more about it. But he’s also worried about him, because how is he really feeling? 

And so they walked on in silence.

“There’s the village!” Lance yelled as he jumped into the air, landing with a pained grunt.  
Keith looked up in surprise, and there, in the distance were house roofs.  
Keith couldn’t help the smile that spread across his face.  
They’d be home again soon, safe.

Lance couldn’t help the tears that gathered in his eyes.  
They were mostly from the excruciating pain from jumping, but also from the great relief of seeing a couple of roofs in the distance.  
Well, not exactly the rooftops, but what they meant.  
They meant that he would be back at the castle, be safe, warm, back with his (space) family, his friends.  
And, it meant that his pain would cease soon.

Lance started jogging, then it turned into a sprint, Keith chasing after.  
“Lance, wait!” Keith screamed,  
“No!” Was all he got for an answer, and damn, was Lance quick.  
Lance only picked up speed by the more he ran, where did he get this energy from, Keith wondered.

Lance just couldn’t wait to see everybody else, to know he was safe, to stop feeling all this pain, to get a big comforting hug from Hunk.  
He just couldn’t wait, so he ran as fast as he could.

Keith knew well that Lance was the fastest of the two of them, and it wouldn’t surprise him if he would have outrun Shiro right now.  
Keith kept up as well as he could, but he was still slacking a good bit behind him. he didn’t mind, tho.

Soon the houses grew bigger as they ran.  
Lance had begun to slow down, making Keith able to catch up with him again.

As they reached the first houses of the village, they slowed down to a walk.  
They could see the heads of their lions.  
Lance let out a relieved sigh.

“Where do you think the others are?” Keith glanced over at Lance,  
“We probably ran past them,” They both laughed at that,  
“But what do we do? Since they’re somewhere behind us, we should probably go look for them in our lions.”  
“Yeah, good idea.” Lance answered absently,  
“But you’ll go back to the castle. You have broken ribs and God knows what else.”  
“Wha- No, I’m fine! I want to go look for them too.”  
Keith shook his head, “Not happening.”  
Lance just picked up his pace and walked a bit in front of Keith.

They finally reached the lions, and Lance actually flew back to the castle, which kind of surprised Keith, but in a good way.

Keith flew back towards the river, searching for the others.

“Gotcha.” He said to himself as he spotted the rest of the team. It’s nice to think that this shit would finally be over soon.

Keith landed Red a bit down the river from where the rest were, as there being no place big enough for Red to fit in. After all, she was a big, magic, mechanical space lion. Yeah, that pretty much summed up Red.

Pidge, Hunk and Shiro was running for Red as they saw her land in the distance. 

When they finally reached them, Keith was standing in front of Red smiling.  
“Hey guys, nice to see you again.” Keith said tilting his head, his hands on his hips. 

“You look like Lance,” Pidge commented with a grin, “Where is he?” She looked around for him, but to no avail.  
“He’s back at the castle,” Keith pointed in the general direction of the castle.” I sent him there.”  
Pidge nodded, “Well, come on. Let’s go home.” Keith said with a genuine smile.

And so they all boarded Red and flew back to the castle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, Ok, Ok.. I really didn't know how to end this, that's why it ends so... abruptly??  
> Well, anyways, Just like- you know, a big, huge thanks to everyone who stuck trough with me through the entire story! It means a lot to me that people like, wait for me to update and like actually looks forward to it, it kind of gives me a reason to be.. uhm, yeah, just end that sentence how ever you want¯\\_(ツ)_/¯.  
> But thanks for reading this shit, it just amazes me that people do it..  
> Well, bye? I'll see you soon anyways:)
> 
> (Hello hello, I read the last chapter for this and wanted to continue it, so a new chapter will be up soon! Iss gon be pure fluff, angst, and of course, klance)


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Klance, angst, fluff
> 
> Very nice

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just felt the need to make this

Lance fell out of the cryopod, and to his disappointment, no one was there to catch him. His nose throbbed as he left the infirmary, heading for the observatory with the big window. 

He hoped his blanket fort was still there, maybe the mice had used it while he was gone. There was a slight stomp to his steps as he walked there. He was mad no one had been waiting for him. When they knew someone would come out of the cryopod soon, everybody gathered there to meet them when they fell out. But this time, he guessed nobody had cared enough to do so. 

Luckily, his fort was still there, so he plopped down in the middle, wrapping a fuzzy blanket around him. The blanket didn't do muck to ward away the chill from the cryopod, he was still shivering. 

He leaned back and heard a squeak, making him jump and look behind him in search of the source. Chulatt crawled up from the sea of blankets, scowling at him. “Sorry, sorry. Didn't mean to sit on you,” Chulatt jumped up on his shoulder and curled into a little ball. “Aww, you missed me?” He petted Chucule with a finger, his soft fur looking like silk. 

Lance sighed and leaned back into the fort, this time, it didn't squeak in protest though. He looked out at the stars floating by outside, 

It was hard to breathe and it hurt. He couldn't take a deep breath, unless he wanted to end up coughing up a lung or two. He'd have to manage with shallow breaths for now. 

“Lance?” 

He went rigid. He didn't want anyone to see him, especially since they didn't meet him when he got out of the cryopod in the first place. 

“Lance, I know you're in here.” Keith said from the doorway. He could hear his footsteps stomp over to the front of the blanket fort, so that they now were face to face. “Are you okay? Sorry we weren't there when you got out of the cryopod. We didn't think it would let you out so early,” Lance looked up at him, “Yeah, yeah, of course I'm fine, it's just-” he bent his head forwards and started rubbing his eyes with his hands desperately. His shoulders startet to shake and Keith could clearly see teardrops fall, making wet spots on the blanket. 

“Hey, hey, it's okay. I'm here.” Keith slid down next to Lance and hugged him, feeling the tension slowly seep out of Lance, like a balloon slowly deflating. 

“It's just-” Lance ducked in a sharp breath. “It's just what?” 

“I love you, Keith!” Lance started sobbing, every shallow breath shaking him. 

Keith opened his mouth in shock, but no sound came out. He didn't think he'd ever blushed this hard in his life before. 

“Lance,”

“I'm sorry,” Lance sobbed, 

“Lance,” Keith said with a little more force. 

“I'm so sorry, I just couldn't-” a hiccup interrupted him. 

“Lance. Look at me.” Keith's voice broke at the end. He felt so sad just seeing Lance this broken and vulnerable in front of him. Lance slowly looked up, connecting eyes with Keith. Lance's eyes, unfocused, wet, red and puffy, were met with beautiful, unwavering purple eyes. Lance sniffled and choked down a sob. 

Keith, handling on instincts, grabbed Lance's face and pulled him in for a kiss. 

Lance's eyes went wide with shock, then slowly slid close, melting into the kiss. 

It was slow, loving and grounding, leaving Lance wanting more as they slowly broke apart. Keith gave a Lance a small loving smile, 

“I love you, too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What do you think?
> 
> Sorry for any writing mistakes in this story,   
> Good bye, and thanks for reading!

**Author's Note:**

> pretty rough start, I know. But it'll get better, I promise!  
> Thanks for reading, see you next time!;3


End file.
